{"id":2229547,"date":"2024-04-24T19:26:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-24T23:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-democrats-in-arizona-are-damaging-the-fifth-amendment\/"},"modified":"2024-04-24T19:29:31","modified_gmt":"2024-04-24T23:29:31","slug":"how-democrats-in-arizona-are-damaging-the-fifth-amendment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-democrats-in-arizona-are-damaging-the-fifth-amendment\/","title":{"rendered":"The Impact of Arizona Democrats on the Fifth Amendment"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhow-democrats-in-arizona-are-damaging-the-fifth-amendment%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2229547&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article highlights the impact of\u2064 political fervor on constitutional rights, particularly the Fifth Amendment, amidst\u200b investigations\u2062 by Arizona Democrats. It \u2062raises concerns about potential\u2064 overreach and \u2062political motives, \u2063emphasizing the importance of safeguarding rights against abuses of power, as demonstrated in\u200c the context of \u2062<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/authorities-searching-for-google-co-founder-in-jeffrey-epstein-case\/\" title=\"Authorities Searching for Google Co-founder in Jeffrey Epstein Case\">legal proceedings involving<\/a> the Fifth Amendment. The article sheds\u200d light on how political fervor\u2063 affects constitutional rights, focusing on the Fifth Amendment amid \u2062investigations\u200c by Arizona Democrats. It underscores concerns regarding possible overreach and\u200c political \u200cintentions, stressing the need to protect rights from power misuse, especially evident in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/american-booksellers-association-ceo-apologizes-for-emailing-cover-of-racist-candace-owens-book\/\" title=\"American Bookseller\u2019s Association CEO Apologizes For Emailing Cover Of \u2018Racist\u2019 Candace Owens Book\">legal cases involving<\/a> the Fifth\u2064 Amendment.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When a political fever runs hot among government officials, the Bill of Rights is often one of the first casualties. Few fevers have been as hot as the Democrats\u2019 reaction to January 6.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is no surprise, then, that the investigation by Democrat Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, like that of the Congressional Select Committee in 2022, obliterated a sacred norm. In this case, the chalk outline is around the Fifth Amendment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I offer this observation as one who recently was compelled to appear in front of an Arizona state grand jury. The sole purpose is for me to repeat my prior invocation of my 5<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">th<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  Amendment right to remain silent in connection with an investigation into my service as an alternate elector for President Trump in 2020. This follows the shameful spectacle of Congress\u2019 House January 6 Select Committee using footage from its investigatory video depositions to produce a slick TV show in advance of the 2022 elections to publicly shame Republican witnesses who invoked their 5<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">th<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  Amendment rights.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Bill of Rights were inserted into the Constitution to protect our essential rights, and the Fourteenth Amendment applies them to the states. The Fifth Amendment contains powerful defenses against abuses of power. It includes the right to be indicted by a grand jury for serious crimes instead of at the whim of a prosecutor, prohibits the government from prosecuting someone twice for the same offense, guarantees due process when the government tries to take your life, freedom, or property, and requires the government to pay for any property it takes from you. The Fifth Amendment has one more essential protection: the government cannot force you to testify against yourself.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Importantly, the Supreme Court held in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/supreme.justia.com\/cases\/federal\/us\/353\/391\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grunewald v. United States<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  that one of this privilege\u2019s basic functions is to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/exclusive-1st-amendment-praetorian-goes-after-jan-6-committee-for-mccarthy-esque-defamation-tactics\/\" title=\"EXCLUSIVE: 1st Amendment Praetorian Goes After Jan. 6 Committee For \u2018McCarthy-esque\u2019 Defamation Tactics\">protect innocent men<\/a> who otherwise might be ensnared by \u201cambiguous circumstances.\u201d The circumstances involving electors in the immediate aftermath of the 2020 election were indeed \u201cambiguous.\u201d Alternate electors had been used in Hawaii in 1960, and the votes of John F. Kennedy\u2019s alternates were ultimately validated long after the election. The day after the 2020 election, liberal commentators Van Jones and Larry Lessig <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2020\/11\/04\/opinions\/pennsylvania-take-time-counting-votes-opinion-jones-lessig\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">published<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  their opinion on CNN that Biden too should select alternate electors in Pennsylvania because Trump was leading in that state\u2019s ballot count and the Democrats should contest the election. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Speaking of ambiguity, exactly what crime Attorney General Mayes is investigating was unclear from the face of the subpoena I received: It provided no notice of the authority of the Attorney General to convene this particular grand jury, no notice of the topic being investigated or the laws allegedly broken, and yet it said that I was a target of the investigation and must testify.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Concern that Mayes is overstepping her authority for political gain is not mere speculation. Before her election in 2022, she campaigned on her certainty \u2014 before her investigation \u2014 that Arizona\u2019s alternate electors committed a crime. Recently, Mayes <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dems.ag\/democratic-ags-join-msnbc-panel-to-discuss-defending-abortion-rights\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">declared<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  that Democrat attorneys general such as herself \u201cabsolutely have to get President Biden re-elected.\u201d With Arizona\u2019s elections only a few months away, consider that Arizona\u2019s investigation is somehow still ongoing nearly three and a half years after the events at issue, that other states and the federal government investigated and made their prosecutorial decisions long ago, and Mayes transparently told the press last year that, with regard to the investigation, \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We\u2019re going to make sure that we do it on <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2024\/03\/26\/politics\/mike-roman-trump-arizona\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">our timetable<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For these reasons, though I maintain my innocence of any crime, I invoked my 5<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">th<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  Amendment right not to be compelled to testify against myself. Longstanding tradition and practice in both state and federal proceedings provides that once an individual subpoenaed by a grand jury informs the prosecution that the individual intends to assert the Fifth Amendment privilege not to testify, the individual is not compelled to appear before a grand jury for the purpose of invoking the privilege. And yet, I and other Republican witnesses were paraded in front of the grand jury solely to invoke our rights. This has rightly provoked the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2024\/03\/28\/arizona-fake-electors-grand-jury-plead-fifth-00149605\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">ridicule<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  of both prosecutors and defense counsel.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There is no substantive evidence in the act of invoking one\u2019s Fifth Amendment rights. To force a witness to do so in front of the grand jury is an improper attempt to bias the grand jury and embarrass the witness. In some jurisdictions like the District of Columbia, a lawyer can be <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dcbar.org\/getmedia\/674ab822-7f43-4e47-a902-77e27d1d64d3\/DC-Code-of-Professional-Responsibility-2021\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">disciplined<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  for forcing a witness to appear only to invoke their Fifth Amendment right.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The damage Democrats like Kris Mayes are inflicting on the 5<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">th<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  Amendment, and especially their normalization of its violation for political gain, is shameful and an affront to our Constitution. Repairing this damage must be a priority for Republicans this election year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>* * *<\/p>\n<p><em>Jake Hoffman\u00a0is an Arizona state\u00a0senator\u00a0in Arizona\u2019s 15th district. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">NOTE: DC Bar Ethics Opinion 31 is found on page 91 of the linked reference.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In times of intense political fervor, such as the aftermath of January 6, some government officials may overlook the sanctity of the Bill of Rights. Arizona Democrats, including Attorney General Kris Mayes, are engaged in investigations that may impact constitutional rights, underscoring the potential risks during such heated moments<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3093,"featured_media":2229548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2024\/04\/GettyImages-476685526-scaled.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2229547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2024\/04\/GettyImages-476685526-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2229547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3093"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2229547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2229547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2229548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2229547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2229547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2229547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}